Hearing and speech impaired customers are currently provided with telephone service through AT&T Operator Services for the Deaf (OSD) and AT&T Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS), which are only accessible by dialing an "800" number. To access either of these services, the caller must first dial the 800 number of the service center before dialing the forward number of the called party. In addition to being cumbersome, this additional operation requires that the calling party know in advance whether the called party is hearing or speech impaired. Thus, the current architecture fails to provide hearing or speech impaired persons with transparent telephone service.
An OSD or TRS center services telephone calls involving persons who are hearing or speech impaired and persons not so impaired by relaying conversations between the parties. The first leg of such a call consists of the caller dialing the 800 number of an OSD or TRS center and providing the center with the called party number. The operator at the center completes the second leg of the call by dialing the number so provided.
For inter-LATA calls, the center operator must dial through a local exchange carrier (LEC) to complete the second leg of the call. As a result, the caller is not provided with direct access to the inter-LATA network. This is because the calling party number delivered to the network will be that of the OSD or TRS center, rather than that of the caller. Thus, network features which depend upon the caller's calling party number to function are currently not available to either the caller or the called party.
"Call Complete" is one example of an inter-LATA network feature which a calling party can invoke and which depends upon the calling party number. When a called party number is busy, this feature allows a calling party to enter a series of digits (e.g. #222) and then hang-up. The network will then attempt to reach the called party every ten minutes for up to one hour. If the called party number answers, the network calls the calling party number and connects the parties. However, this feature cannot be invoked for calls which require routing to an OSD or TRS center, because in such instances the calling party number is not delivered to the inter-LATA network.
"AT&T True Ties" is another example of an inter-LATA network feature which requires that the switching network have access to the calling party number, except that this feature is one to which a called party can subscribe. This feature allows a subscriber to always pay for calls received from a telephone whose number the subscriber has previously designated. The called party may designate up to five such telephone numbers. However, for calls that require routing to an OSD or TRS center, the calling party number is not delivered to the network, and thus the network will not be able to ascertain whether that number is among those previously designated by the called party subscriber. Accordingly, the "AT&T True Ties" feature is not available to a party to such a call.
In addition, although the current architecture supports the use of calling cards by hearing or speech impaired persons, the OSD or TRS operators must currently place a separate call, using a different phone, to access (via the LEC) the card validation routines contained in the inter-LATA network. This presents a heightened opportunity for fraud since an unscrupulous operator may selectively choose not to undertake this additional step when relaying a call for a familiar calling party.